Sergi Costa Duran writes a book that is both eco friendly and easy to read for the novice fan of environmentally-friendly building design.

The book tackles how to design an eco-friendly house and then itemizes all the attendant considerations, such as the pros and cons of various building materials. For those who want to convert their homes into eco-friendly homes, he addresses those issues in the second half of the book.

Readers are taken around the world and shown the best ideas for low-carbon impact ideas. The creativity of home owners and architects is stunning. The kitchen on page 85 crafted from wood from used wine boxes is a brilliant and beautiful idea.

New terms are introduced and explained throughout the book. The main one is bioconstructionm which is the zenith for eco home building and is achieved when a building is created with recycled or recyclable “low-environmental impact materials that can be extracted by simple processes at a low cost.”

Costa Duran’s descriptive writing is a pleasure to read. He likens the outside of a building to a “third skin” and tells readers that the home’s health depends on the quality of this skin. Instructive diagrams and compelling photos round out the explanations in helping readers understand complex systems in layman terms.

Unfortunately, his descriptive prowess does not translate to scientific measurements. A glossary would have helped the true novice understand these terms: mrad, btu/lb., K. The experts already owns many volumes on the topic and probably remembers their high school science classes.

Anyone who’s contemplating building a new home, or trying to reduce the impact of their current one, should read this book.

Peggy Mackenzie is a Toronto Star librarian addicted to home, decor and gardening books. Contact her with book review requests at pmackenzie@thestar.ca.

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